AIBU or did this guy overreact to our dog approaching him?

Yes, it’s intolerant to force your own love of your own dog on others who may not like strange dogs or any dogs at all. Including people who for mobility issues may feel especially anxious about a dog jumping on them.

And to claim they know their “fur babies” minds and they can guarantee they won’t harm you is super irrational.

apart from the fact in a significant amount of dog bites incidents, the owner claims they had never shown signs of aggression before some people just don’t want dirty paws, sharp claws or a dogs tongue which may have licked poo on them.

Your dog was not under your control, jumped at him and he was scared and protecting his 3 year old. Every week there is a dog in the news salvaging a child. This man was scared for his child and no wonder he was angry. Next time please call the police and I hope they prosecute you for failing to control your dog in public.

My own personal dog phobia comes from going to school with a girl whose nose had been bitten off by a dog. Truly sad. It's never ok to let your dog approach strangers even if you feel they are friendly or it's a one off. The 'friendly' dog she was patting at the time turned on her.

Doesn’t matter how you try and justify it OP. Your dog WAS out of control. Keep it under control.
What you saw was someone’s survival instinct kicking in and of course it won’t be pretty.

Hopefully this incident teaches you to put your dog on a lead because it can’t be trusted. I do the same with my two and it’s really not a problem.

You are really ignoring the responses. He didn't know your dog, your dog jumped up on him he had no way of knowing if your dog is violent and he had a child.

The idea h could "tell" the dog made a mistake is laughable.

I adore dogs and have had many family pets but I certainly wouldn't be very happy to be jumped on by a strange dog.

I totally agree.

Completely agree. I avoided leaving my house for covid related reasons during the pandemic and almost started developing a kind of phobia/bad habit where I’d stay in for weeks on end .

I was making a real effort to start going out more last year when the neighbours dog jumped on me. I started losing the progress I had made and increasingly stayed in my flat (I WFH) I just had to shake myself out of it and get back out there as that’s not the way I want to live my life, but even now I avoid certain places like parks.

You don’t know what people are going through or what they’ve experienced either generally or specifically in relation to dogs . I suspect this man has a history with dogs attacking.

That moment of the dog running at me was just awful. I had no idea if it would bite or note. I’m “lucky” I only got scratched.

I’m curious as to why other people should tolerate my dogs running and jumping at them?

Your dog was out of control. The man acted in self defence. All of this angst would have been prevented if you just controlled your fucking dog.

Be a responsible dog owner. A French bull dog bit my child’s leg because of irresponsible owners like you. Not everyone sees a dog as a friend. You have no idea of the back ground of this person or pat experiences.

n. She's usually really good but sometimes has bad recall if she sees someone she knows

you just wrote this in your op so why now are you saying 100% recall? You expected people to go on your side and now you’re changing your stance

Control your f-ing dog. The 3 year old could have been badly injured and terrified for life if he’d been jumped on by your dog. The problem with dogs is all the irresponsible owners who think this sort of stuff is okay because their dog is harmless and their dog would never hurt anyone. It does hurt and scare people when an animal suddenly appears charging at you and jumping on you and we don’t know if your dog bites until we’re bitten do we? So just keep the dog on a leash in public.

I have a bichon poodle cross. They really are very small dogs.

Similarly, mine has brilliant recall - until he doesn’t. They’re exuberant and sociable dogs by nature. I don’t let him off lead because of this.

I live in a diverse area, so perhaps I’m extra mindful about not letting my dog approach people willy nilly, I bring him closer when passing people etc. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how tiny and cute my dog is, not everyone likes dogs and size doesn’t matter.

Lots of young children are wary of dogs, it’s important to me that my dog doesn’t contribute to their fearfulness and is instead a positive experience. Often that positive experience seems to be simply that they can pass by without being jumped at/on.

They shouldn’t. I don’t ever let my dog do this & I think op should’ve 100% had her dog either on lead or with recall at 100%.

Wgat is irrational is comments like what if the toddler was pushed over by the dog & it was brain damaged & that the dog was violent & attacked the man. Worst case neurotic replies.

Yes the dog ‘could’ve’ knocked them over & killed them on tarmac beach or ‘what if’ the dog had eaten them all’ you know, like all the stories in the news. None of this happened.

I don't hate dogs at all but I have a severe allergic reaction and almost always have an asthma exacerbation leading to hospitalisation when I am around dogs. It is such a pain when someone's dog comes up to me and I start getting itchy and wheezy.

My DS at 6 months and is suspected to have a similar problems. A dog came up to him recently and jumped on him, my reaction was to freeze but I could easily have hit the dog if I thought my son was going to be in hospital because of it.

Why have you allowed your dog to think it is acceptable to jump at people it knows or thinks it knows?

Eugh, I honestly hate taking my toddler walking anywhere at the minute as there are so many "friendly" dogs off the lead doing what the hell they want with owners barely in the vicinity.

Dogs should be on a lead in public places no exceptions.

It isn’t just a dog beach though, it is a human beach which dogs are allowed on. Aka a shared space, so he has as much right to be there as you. It was a strong reaction but maybe there’s a reason for it, keep your dog on the lead if that’s likely to happen again.

nobody has said it's okay to stomp a puppy, ffs.

I imagine most people who said/voted YABU also think the guy was BU. Out of the 2 of you, he was probably more unreasonable because his reaction sounds disproportionate for such a small dog.

BUT

if you hadn't caused the issue (by having the dog off lead) then he wouldn't have had the chance to be unreasonable. Also sometimes fear (for himself or his small child) can lead to involuntary inappropriate reactions whereas you don't have that excuse - his reaction was influenced by surprise and possibly fear, you made the decision to leave your dog off lead completely rationally without any pressure/time constrictions.

That's why people are blaming you, and even then nobody thinks your puppy deserves to get stomped.
Just that ultimately it was you that caused the situation, which he then reacted badly to.

Shame you wasn’t so arrogant & confrontational during the incident. Since you clearly think you’re in the right 🤷‍♀️😂

He shouldn't have reacted the way he did, but it's you in the wrong here.
It's not always obvious that certain areas of the beach are dog friendly and some aren't. His child could have had a fright from a dog recently or he may have been attacked himself. It doesnt matter, because unless you have perfect recall, your dog should be on a lead.
I don't know what it is about the beach that makes dog owners so irresponsible. You can barely sit on a beach in England, without an uncontrolled dog running round you and jumping all over your stuff. And the owners laugh like it's adorable. It's not. I say all this as a dog owner!

@MrsH1992
i can’t reply but if your dog hasn’t got recall, keep it on the lead .

This isn't about a wee dog saying hello anymore. It's about a nasty bully of a guy getting his own way and MN agreeing. You're shameful